The Synthesis of Yoga - Sri Aurobindo Ashram

64 The Yoga of Divine Works
egoistic habits of thought, of sensation, of feeling block up the
avenues by which we can arrive at the perception that is needed.
It is difficult afterwards because the faith, the surrender, the
courage requisite in this path are not easy to the ego-clouded
soul. The divine working is not the working which the egoistic
mind desires or approves; for it uses error in order to arrive at
truth, suffering in order to arrive at bliss, imperfection in order
to arrive at perfection. The ego cannot see where it is being led;
it revolts against the leading, loses confidence, loses courage.
These failings would not matter; for the divine Guide within
is not offended by our revolt, not discouraged by our want of
faith or repelled by our weakness; he has the entire love of the
mother and the entire patience of the teacher. But by withdrawing
our assent from the guidance we lose the consciousness,
though not all the actuality — not, in any case, the eventuality
— of its benefit. And we withdraw our assent because we fail to
distinguish our higher Self from the lower through which he is
preparing his self-revelation. As in the world, so in ourselves, we
cannot see God because of his workings and, especially, because
he works in us through our nature and not by a succession of
arbitrary miracles. Man demands miracles that he may have
faith; he wishes to be dazzled in order that he may see. And
this impatience, this ignorance may turn into a great danger and
disaster if, in our revolt against the divine leading, we call in
another distorting Force more satisfying to our impulses and
desires and ask it to guide us and give it the Divine Name.
But while it is difficult for man to believe in something
unseen within himself, it is easy for him to believe in something
which he can image as extraneous to himself. The spiritual
progress of most human beings demands an extraneous support,
an object of faith outside us. It needs an external image of God;
or it needs a human representative, — Incarnation, Prophet or
Guru; or it demands both and receives them. For according
to the need of the human soul the Divine manifests himself
as deity, as human divine or in simple humanity — using that
thick disguise, which so successfully conceals the Godhead, for
a means of transmission of his guidance.